Hunters, particularly of deer, utilize blinds and elevated towers to cover themselves from sight of the prey and elements of the weather as well as to gain a better vantage from which to fell their game. Given that the hunting is done in the wood, and hunters for sport usually live in a distant, likely populated place, there is need of a transportable tower and blind. Further, it is custom for the hunter to have significant equipment which must also be transported. The desirable blind will be trailer mounted so that it may be pulled along public highways, preferably at higher speeds as in interstate highway travel so it must have a lower, secure profile when in the stored position. Advantageously, the trailer mounted blind has room for a closeable, waterproof storage box and ideally, a three or four wheeled off road vehicle such as the well known all-terrain vehicle (ATV). The ATV is advantageous in that the final site for location of the blind may be at some distance from a roadway or path, requiring other than the normal pick-up truck or sports utility vehicle for the final several hundred yards of movement.
There have been numerous attempts at a suitable mobile blind or deer stand, as represented by several of the many patents which have issued over a considerable span of years. Among these are U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,684 to Fath, et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,081 to Reeves and U.S. Pat. No. 4,442,919 to Fulcher. For lack of a more precise description, these hunting stands are essentially fully assembled and carried on a wheeled vehicle and made operational by tilting the assemblage to the upright position. Their management is cumbersome, and usually requires more than one person for set-up.
Another typical construction is a vertically lifted style as represented by patents U.S. Pat. No. 4,719,716 to Chrisley, U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,179 to Royerand U.S. Pat. No. 5,862,827 to Howze. The deer stand of the '716 patent is raised to the vertical by pivoting the legs about fixed points to the vertical by means of a pulley system. The base may be on a trailer or on a fixed base. The stand of the '179 patent is raised vertically on telescoping legs by means of a pulley system powered by a hand crank or an electric motor. The stand of the '827 patent is also raised vertically on telescoping legs by means of a pulley system operated by a hand crank winch on the carrying trailer. These stands are generally complicated and prone to require periodic maintenance.
The deer stand illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,555 to Strange is raised much like the ladder of a “hook and ladder” fire engine, utilizing a hydraulic lift. The tower retains its upright orientation through the lifting from is lowered position on the carry trailer to the upright or elevated position. The typical hunting tower is utilized in remote areas and separate hydraulic power means is seldom available on normal tow vehicles (pick-up trucks and ATV's).
A final style of deer stand is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,290,023 to Martin wherein the supporting tower is assembled in the field at the site with the tailgate of the carrying trailer forming the floor of the elevated platform/enclosure by backing the trailer into the legs (a triangular arrangement being illustrated) whereby two of the legs gain a purchase in the terrain of the site such that the triangular tower rotates to an upright position. In this position, the tailgate/floor is parallel to the terrain, and bowed supports forming a cover for the trailer are moved to the platform to form a covering for the tower platform. Assembly of the tower is obviously complex and an large vehicle is necessary to elevate the tower, thus requiring a prepared way to the tower's final site.
The present invention overcomes several shortcomings of these prior art stands, as will be evident from the succeeding description.